The title of this article is conjectural. Although it is based on canonical information, the actual name is conjecture and may be supplanted at any time by additional information released from canonical sources. If this occurs, please move this page to the appropriate title.

A blood quill is a Dark magical object of torture that is a type of quill that does not require ink, as it writes with the blood of the person using it. What the user writes will be carved onto the back of his or her hand, and the blood from the words sliced into the hand will be magically siphoned and be used as ink on the parchment. The wound on the back of the hand will then heal, slightly redder than before, and then open up when the user writes again. Continuous use of it will eventually scar the back of the hand. The quill is black, long, thin, and extremely sharp.

Contents

Known use

Professor Umbridge overseeing Harry's detention with the blood quill.

"He let out a gasp of pain. The words had appeared on the parchment in what appeared to be shining red ink. At the same time, the words had appeared on the back of Harry's right hand, cut into his skin as though traced there by a scalpel--yet even as he stared at the shining cut, the skin healed over again, leaving the place where it had been slightly redder than before but quite smooth...He looked back at the parchment, placed the quill upon it once more, wrote I must not tell lies, and felt the searing pain on the back of his hand for a second time; once again, the words had been cut into his skin, once again they healed over seconds later. And on it went. Again and again Harry wrote the words on the parchment in what he soon came to realize was not ink, but his own blood. And again and again the words were cut into the back of his hand, healed, and then reappeared the next time he set quill to parchment"

Harry Potter was one of the students Umbridge frequently forced this punishment upon, since he persistently claimed that Lord Voldemort had returned, which the Ministry of Magic refused to believe. He used the blood quill during many detentions, until he acquired a scar on the back of his hand reading "I must not tell lies". Hermione Granger prepared a solution made of Murtlap Essence in order to help relieve the pain Harry suffered from using the blood quill.[1]Lee Jordan was another student who was forced to use the blood quill.[3] There are also many students Umbridge put into detention for using the Skiving Snackbox and claiming to have "Umbridge-itis", but after failing to discover their secrets, she is forced to allow them to leave her classes in droves. It is unknown if she used the blood quill to punish these students.

Legacy

"You've been through all that persecution from the Ministry when they were trying to make out you were unstable and a liar. You can still see the marks on the back of your hand where that evil woman made you write with your own blood, but you stuck to your story anyway..."

Harry's torturous detentions from Umbridge have served as a symbol of her tyranny and the lengths to which the Ministry would go to silence him from telling the truth, though it is never known whether other Ministry employees or even Cornelius Fudge himself were ever aware that she used these disciplinary actions. It is possible that the Ministry was unaware of it and would not condone the usage, as when Umbridge prepared to use the Cruciatus Curse on Harry she said "What Cornelius doesn't know won't hurt him", giving rise to speculation that Umbridge might be doing more than a few unlawful things, the Blood Quill included. Percy Weasley, in a letter to his brotherRonald Weasley, described Umbridge as a "delightful woman", and is is speculated that if he knew what type of punishments she was handing out he might not have described her as such. However, it is possible that Percy, being so deep within the Ministry and so convinced what they were doing was the right thing, might have made some excuse or even overlooked Umbridge's behavior if he learned about it.

Dolores Umbridge, the only known administer of the blood quill form of punishment.

Due to the sadistic punishments he received from Umbridge for standing up to her, Harry hated Umbridge from the bottom of his heart, a hatred rivaling that which he felt towards Severus Snape. He loathed Umbridge's high, girlish voice and her wide, toadlike smile during his detentions, and the way she seemed to enjoy and take pleasure as he carved his hand and wrote in his own blood. However, Harry was convinced talking about the punishments he was forced to do wasn't a good idea, he stubbornly clung to the belief that this was a private battle of wills between him and Umbridge and he didn't want to give in or give her the satisfaction of hearing that he complained about it.

During the Christmas of 1997, Harry was visited at The Burrow by then-Minister for MagicRufus Scrimgeour. The purpose of Scrimgeours visit was to ask Harry to be the Ministry's "poster child", that is, he would pop in and out of the Ministry from time to time and tell the public that the Ministry was doing the right thing in the war against Voldemort. Scrimgeour tried to persuade Harry to work the Ministry to create the image the "The Chosen One" was supporting them while they continued to get no where in capturing Death Eaters and putting the wrong people in Azkaban also to give an image of progress.

To bribe Harry, Scrimgeour told Harry he could get him in contact with Gawain Robards, Head of the Auror Office, as Umbridge had told the Minister that Harry had an ambition to become an Auror. Upon hearing that Umbridge was still in Ministry employment, anger began to bubble at the pit of Harry's stomach. When Harry pointed out that Scrimgeour didn't care if he (Harry) lived or died as long as he created the illusion that the Ministry was doing well, Harry raised his right fist and showed Scrimgeour the scars of I must not tell lies Umbridge had forced him to carve into his own flesh, shining white on the back of his cold hand, and pointed out that the Ministry wasn't so keen to be friends during their campaign to discredit him and Dumbledore the previous year.

The blood quill is rather similar to a device in Franz Kafka's short story "In the Penal Colony", where inmates are tortured and executed with a crude device that carves the sentence into the convicted person's skin.